So I have this friend…

2008 September 29
by TMcG

What do you recommend when you have a friend who is stuck?

Stuck on what’s comfortable.
Stuck on what’s easily understood.
Stuck on what’s familiar.
Stuck on what makes them feel solid.

How does a bodhisattva not become a nuisance?

3 Responses
  1. September 30, 2008

    I’m your friend. Most of the time I’m stuck on what’s comfortable, easy, and familiar.

    I become a bodhisattva only in those rare moments when I take the risk to reveal my own stuck-ness to those I care about.

    All I have to offer is my own work, as it appears in the moment.

    Maybe if you expose your own stuck nature to your friend, she/he will experience an opening of their own. Bodhisattvas can’t do anything by themselves!

  2. September 30, 2008

    Such a good point and actually that is what ended up happening.

    I became quite vulnerable in a discussion group and really opened up to how essentially messed up I can be at times. (I have the projection that this person thinks I’m a strict student of the dharma who goes ‘by the book’, without any evaluation of the teachings.) I can only hope that my admission of ‘messedup-ed-ness’ helped to see that I’m really no different from them as they are no different from me.

    Thanks for your comment!

  3. September 30, 2008

    Well, that’s amazing! As I wrote the other day on my blog, dukkha means that we’re all broken.

    Barry

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